One Year and Counting

Yesterday I met with my oncologist to go over the results of my latest PET scan which was one week ago today. The short story is there was no sign of recurrent Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. YEAH!! The longer story is that once again the radiologist wrote in his report that there was progressive disease meaning again he/she was unaware that I have Crohn’s disease. The metabolic activity that exists in the inflammation of my terminal ileum looks the same on a PET scan as cancerous cells. Once again, my Crohn’s disease is complicating things. After meeting with the radiologist my oncologist confirmed that there are no enlarged lymph nodes and no unusual activity in the spleen or other organs commonly susceptible to lymphomas. The blood tests also show no signs of lymphoma.

The scan did indicate that a larger portion of the terminal ileum is inflamed in comparison to my last scan approximately six months ago. The wall of the ileum is also thicker with inflammation. This indicates my Crohn’s disease is more active than it was six months ago. It is worth mentioning that PET scans are rarely, if ever, used to study Crohn’s disease. PET scans are very expensive and insurance would never cover it. It is possible that if multiple PET scans were taken days or even several hours apart they may show that the level of inflammation can vary significantly. In other words, this PET scan could just have been performed at a time of relatively high inflammation. I have an appointment with my gastroenterologist in early January, so we will again discuss my treatment options to keep the inflammation at bay while hopefully staying away from immunosuppressants.

That slightly bad news aside, the appointment yesterday was very encouraging and I am hopeful that I will successfully avoid a recurrence.